If you aren't office-based, what do you do about emergency contacts?

[iheartdusty]

Hello, I have put this here because I imagine it affects freelancers more than people with permanent employment who have a 'base' to connect with.

I am trying to make a list of contact details for use by school, au pair etc, and it is potentially very confusing. I have a "portfolio" work style which means I am never office based, rarely in the same place twice, and unable to have my mobile phone switched on during working hours. What's the solution?

At the moment I have a list of 4 offices which organise most of my bookings. So in an emergency someone would have to ring each of them up, and ask whether I'm working 'for' them that day, then they would have to try to get in touch with me at a distant venue.

At least DH has an office-based job, but he is 1.5 hours away from home (as am I, sometimes, and sometimes more).

So far the DCs have had the good grace to be sick on days when I was at home anyway, and if they are ill before 7am DH can generally plan to work at home. It's in the au pair contract that s/he will step in if needed during the day. But what if there's a crisis?

I have two mobiles, a personal one and a work one, and one of them will always be on, even if on silent, so potentially in an emergency I can be reached.

I have no office or regular places of work, as it's all mobile stuff.

Do you have a grandparent locally?

Have a silent phone that is for emergencies only, and only give the number to said person.

hmm, maybe I could get a dedicated mobile only for emergencies. I can't check messages as they come in, so couldn't count on knowing if it was an urgent call.

Given them DH number, make sure he always knows where you are that day so he can contact you. Just thinking that is the case of a true emergency you would want to know ASAP not have them make four different calls and try and track you down. OMDB's idea good too. Buy a PAYG phone, only give nursery the number, if it ever rings you know it's important and worth the potential telling off.

no, no family locally. My au pair gets the number for some trusted friends, but that's more to ask advice, pick up other child, etc.

I have always travelled a lot with my work. I have a personal mobile that only a few people have the number of. If it rings (vibrates) I will always answer.

You do need to do this and agree with wingandaprayer that a PAYG would be a good solution.

My DS was run over and I could not get hold of DH was trying to call him on all different numbers, got hold of someone who went and got him, but it took too long. We agreed after that that we would have our secret numbers only for use in emergencies.

alas not even DH could necessarily contact me - some of the places I go to don't have phones, and most only have a very busy switchboard. You're right - I don't want A&E trying four different numbers only to get another number from each.

oneliein - hope your DS is OK now.

yes I will get a dedicated mobile and keep it on silent.

provide your dcs with a contact book that they can take to school every day and put down the number where you can be reached in it on a daily basis. am sure this would be fine if you explain to school beforehand?

Oh yes, DS was fine, it didn't even knock any sense into him

Do get one, hopefully you will never use it.

scrap that, dedicated mobile much better

thanks everyone, I will.

I give Dh's numbers as the 1st lines for nursery to contact- personal mobile and office desk phone. They have my personal mobile with a note agaist it stating that I work all over the county and am often out of range or up a ladder, so call DH. also have a trusted friend who WOULD do all she could to pick up pieces and boy adores her. All family are 150 miles away or more.

Add to that- I trust DH to Do what ever might need doing.After all when I work at weekend DH has sole care of boy.

thanks UniS. yes, I trust DH completely to sort things out, but of course we both need to be contactable if necessary.

I have an 0845 number which I use for business. This is essentially a 'front' number as I can ask the company from whom I bought it to direct calls to any other number. If I know I'm going to be working in-house for a client (or even visiting friends/relatives) for the day, I just call them up and give them the details. Any calls to the 0845 number are then re-routed. Simple.

I'm sure there are a number of companies out there but I use Telesave. They've always been very helpful. It's a cheap service too!

I should add that I only paid for the 0845 number (a small amount but don't remember exactly how much) but don't use Telesave for any other calls. Once you have the number, you could just use your normal landline/mobile to make the calls themselves. So this seems like it could be a useful option for you too, Iheartdusty.

Thanks chelseamorning, that's another useful idea.